Wood Village in recycling debate over redemption centers for bottles and cans

View full sizeRaymond Rendleman, Special to The OregonianWood Village resident Imelda Santiago worries that a redemption center in this building, at 23345 N.E. Halsey St., would snarl traffic where she catches the bus to work at a Gresham Burger King. The parking lot of a Fred Meyer in Wood Village is ground zero for the future of Oregon's landmark bottle bill.

Here on a recent spring morning, Hood River resident David DeWeber stopped on the way to his Adventist Medical Center job and got his 5 cents back on bottles and cans, but he wonders whether a centralized redemption center would be more convenient. "A lot of people like to go to the place that they shop to get their deposit back," DeWeber said.

Others, like Wood Village resident Imelda Santiago, 43, worried that a redemption center would snarl traffic where she catches the bus to work at a Burger King in Gresham.

Despite the questions, the second attempt to build the state's first bottle-and-can redemption center is gaining steam in east county. The first attempt to build a center in Gresham fizzed out, but now the scheme to jump-start the program has moved to nearby Wood Village.

Since the bottle bill was passed in 1971, Oregon has had a provision to set up redemption centers. With the hope of eliminating the burden on grocers by providing a new statewide model for returns, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission has looked over about 90 possible sites considered by the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, a coalition of big grocers.

"Our goal is to improve the overall customer experience," said Alisa Shifflett, redemption center project manager for the cooperative. "Grocery bottle rooms don't always get full-time staff, so the new redemption center would be a very clean, well-lit and safe environment."

The delay in setting up the first site has not been due to any community outcry, according to the OLCC, which administers applications for such centers. "That first one never made it through our process," said OLCC spokeswoman Christie Scott. "There was a hiccup with the zoning because the site wasn't zoned for a redemption center."

But, Scott acknowledges, "there are a lot of different perspectives out there on this possible first site."

The newly proposed site at 23345 N.E. Halsey St. is within 1 1/2 miles of 19 stores currently operating with redemption services. A proposal submitted by the cooperative stipulates that at least three stores, including the nearby Fred Meyer, would be able to discontinue redemption services once the center opened.

After a public comment period closes April 5, comments will be reviewed, and the proposal will go before an April 15 public meeting of the OLCC.

"I'm all for not having to clean this place up at the beginning of every day," said Mitch Traban, a six-year Fred Meyer employee who takes care of the store's can machines as part of his daily rounds at 22855 N.E. Park Lane.

The cooperative would like to have the redemption center open in June, but that depends on the process. Scott stated that, after the proposal is out of the hands of the OLCC, the center will rely on the schedule of the builders, who must comply with local ordinances in constructing the center.

"I am quite concerned about convenience for consumers," said Betty Patton, a board member and past president of Recycling Advocates. "If redemption centers are implemented wisely, they could be quite an asset, but it all depends on how clean and how well-staffed they are."

Gary Rutz, store manager of the Wood Village Fred Meyer, said he is looking forward to the center going in.

"If people could drop off bags of cans and bottles," he said, "it will much more convenient for our customers than dropping cans in one by one."

Advocates still worry that an extra trip to a redemption center would limit convenience and result in less recycling.

"The proposed center decreases the number of points of return," Patton said. "My preference would be to continue with a minimum amount that the stores would accept."